I got a handme down Dell Inspiron 3700. It has a P3-500 with 128MB of memory. Turns out it had a bad hard drive which was easy to replace. However, it desperately needs more memory. So I bought a 256 MB PC133 SO-DIMM module for it, and plugged it into slot 2. Here are the stats from it:
PC133(3) 256M*8
Upon bootup, I got memory errors with the final message saying "Memory amount decreased". Going into bios shows me that I only have 128 MB installed. I tried putting the 256MB module in slot 1 and the 128MB original in slot 2, but it wouldn't boot. Took out the 128MB, and it won't boot.
Now, I suppose there's a chance that I got a defective module, but let's assume for a second that the memory is good. What sort of compatibility issue am I encountering? This is my first time mucking with laptops, and it seems like the rules from desktops do not apply here.
The manual does state that the laptop can take 256MB modules. The existing module is a PC100 module, but I don't think that's the difference. I got that module from newegg for about $42, and would rather shell out $135 to Dell.
The only item I can think of is that the Dell module is PC100 32M*64.
-martin
** EDIT: Let me add that I did flash the BIOS to the latest rev, but obviously that didn't help. **
PC133(3) 256M*8
Upon bootup, I got memory errors with the final message saying "Memory amount decreased". Going into bios shows me that I only have 128 MB installed. I tried putting the 256MB module in slot 1 and the 128MB original in slot 2, but it wouldn't boot. Took out the 128MB, and it won't boot.
Now, I suppose there's a chance that I got a defective module, but let's assume for a second that the memory is good. What sort of compatibility issue am I encountering? This is my first time mucking with laptops, and it seems like the rules from desktops do not apply here.
The manual does state that the laptop can take 256MB modules. The existing module is a PC100 module, but I don't think that's the difference. I got that module from newegg for about $42, and would rather shell out $135 to Dell.
The only item I can think of is that the Dell module is PC100 32M*64.
-martin
** EDIT: Let me add that I did flash the BIOS to the latest rev, but obviously that didn't help. **